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May 1989

Volume 85, Issue S1, pp. S1-S156

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back to top Tutorial on Acoustical Oceanography
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Acoustical oceanography: Child of ocean acoustics (A)

Herman Medwin

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 85, Issue S1, pp. S1-S1 (1989); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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Sound propagation is the preeminent technique for sensing, identifying, and communicating under the ocean surface. However, the extraordinary spatial and temporal variability of the ocean has frustrated underwater acousticians for decades. The solution, of course, was to learn more about the causes of this variability. The traditional oceanographic instruments do this rather crudely, and probably the best technique is to use the acoustical behavior to characterize the medium. Several years ago, ocean acoustics gave birth to acoustical oceanography. The acoustical oceanographer inverts the problem; he uses the seemingly capricious nature of sound propagation to learn about the ocean. The many successes of this young science range from the identification and counting of physical and biological inhomogeneities, such as microbubbles, zooplankton, and fish, to the remote sensing of distant rainfall and sea surface roughness, deep sea mountains, rocks and sediments, as well as the shape and strength of immense churning ocean eddies, hundreds of kilometers in extent.
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